God's Judgment: WHY and HOW, Part 1

Introduction:

Judgment is Fueled By God's Jealousy. (Nahum 1:1-7)

Acts 20:27 - or I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Nahum

Nineveh

Gods Judgment: God's righteous act of identifying sin and condemning sinners

Exodus 20:3You shall have no other gods before me.

Exodus 34:14 - ...for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God...

Deuteronomy 4:24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

God is jealous for 3 things that belong to Him:

  1. His Glory.
  2. His Work.
  3. His People.

2 Thessalonians 1:6 - ...God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you

God has a holy concern for what He Loves, and God is Jealous for you.

God's judgment is Fueled by His jealousy.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:43-00:45

    Open up your Bibles with me, please.

    00:46-00:48

    To the book of Nahum.

    00:50-00:52

    Nahum in the Old Testament.

    00:54-00:57

    You might need to help the person sitting next to you find it.

    00:59-01:04

    It's in the Old Testament, one of the Old Testament prophets, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk.

    01:07-01:16

    And we are starting a new series this week, a four-part series this week called God's Judgment.

    01:19-01:20

    Why and how?

    01:23-01:29

    Several years ago in the early days of this church plant, we were actually meeting in a school.

    01:31-01:32

    And I'll never forget this day.

    01:34-01:40

    We didn't have very many people, but this one particular Sunday, we had this whole giant group of people come in.

    01:41-01:47

    And so much so that they filled up almost an entire row in the middle section of the middle school.

    01:47-01:53

    And I remember just as a pastor, when you're in the early days of a church plant, you want people, right?

    01:53-02:01

    So all these new people came in and I'm like, "Yes, our attendance just doubled." And I'm just like so excited.

    02:01-02:06

    You know, we're going through the worship and worship was fantastic, again, like it was today, for sure.

    02:07-02:09

    But I was like, "Oh, this is fantastic!

    02:09-02:14

    All these new people came!" And then it was my turn to get up and deliver the Word.

    02:14-02:21

    And I remember that particular Sunday, the message was on hell.

    02:23-02:25

    And I'll never forget this.

    02:27-03:07

    of the lines in my introduction I said, "Hell is a real place, and real people are really going there." And as soon as I said that, they all stood up, 90 degree turn, and single walked out. And I don't think it was, "Oh my tummy, I gotta get to the bathroom." I think it was, "All the way to the car walked out." People don't want to hear it.

    03:07-03:49

    People don't want to hear it. People don't want to hear it. And at the risk of sounding critical, you know a lot of churches advertise - I was talking about this with a pastor friend of mine recently - but a lot of churches advertised, "Hey, we want you to come and get comfortable. We want you to come and get comfortable. We want you to come, we want you to get comfortable, settle in and get comfortable." But you know what the truth is? Maybe you shouldn't be comfortable at church. And I'm not saying the chairs need to be harder, or our coffee needs to be nasty. What I'm saying is you, and when I say you I mean we, I that shake us.

    03:51-04:06

    Because if the Bible is true, then those who haven't received God's grace in Jesus Christ are staring down the barrel of God's wrath.

    04:07-04:07

    True or false?

    04:09-04:11

    If the Bible is true, then that's a true statement.

    04:13-04:19

    That those who don't conform to the will of God will face the wrath of God, true or false.

    04:20-04:23

    Okay, so why is it that we want people to be so comfortable?

    04:25-04:32

    Do we really want people coming into the church and we are keeping them comfortable all the way to hell?

    04:32-04:34

    Is that what we want? Is that what we want to do?

    04:35-04:38

    You're heading straight for a godless eternity!

    04:38-04:40

    But we want you to be comfortable for the 15 minutes that you're here.

    04:42-04:45

    We should be ashamed of ourselves, honestly.

    04:47-04:52

    With that said, we are starting a four-part sermon series on the book of Nahum.

    04:54-05:01

    Show of hands, who has recently, and when I say recently, I mean ever in their lives, heard a sermon from the book of Nahum?

    05:02-05:04

    Who has ever heard a sermon from the book of Nahum?

    05:05-05:06

    Darla, anybody else? Okay.

    05:08-05:09

    Kaylee, you have.

    05:11-05:13

    Okay, Taylor, you have? Okay.

    05:15-05:19

    So like three of us have heard a servant on the book of Nahum.

    05:20-05:21

    Awesome.

    05:21-05:23

    Do you know why people don't preach on Nahum very often?

    05:26-05:28

    It's not a cozy, comfy book. It's just not.

    05:30-05:32

    It's not a comfortable book.

    05:33-05:35

    It's a book about God's judgment.

    05:37-05:38

    The why and the how of God's judgment.

    05:40-05:43

    So why are we doing it if it's not so popular?

    05:43-05:44

    I'm going to tell you why.

    05:45-05:49

    Because Nahum is as much a part of the Bible as the book of John. Right?

    05:51-05:56

    Nahum is as much a part of the Bible as the Psalms are part of the Bible. Right?

    05:58-06:18

    Nahum is as much a part of the do, but name is just as relevant because it was the same Holy Spirit who inspired the contents of this book.

    06:21-06:51

    And I'm going to tell you as a pastor, we just finished three years in the book of Acts, but one of the most convicting verses for my job is Acts 20, 27 when Paul says to the Ephesian elders, "I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God, And God forbid me to ever be so wrapped up in what I want to preach, and what I think people want to hear, and what's going to keep people comfortable that I fail to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

    06:52-06:54

    That's why we're doing a series in the book of NAM.

    06:55-06:57

    Like, "Oh, judgment, nobody wants to hear that.

    06:58-06:59

    We'll skip that part.

    06:59-07:02

    Judgment, hell, wrath, vengeance, we don't...

    07:02-07:03

    Who wants to hear that?

    07:03-07:03

    Nobody wants to hear that.

    07:03-07:11

    We'll skip that." Paul says, "I didn't shrink back." By God's grace, I don't want to shrink back.

    07:11-07:13

    That's why we're doing this series.

    07:14-07:16

    But God is a God of love, right?

    07:16-07:17

    Absolutely He is.

    07:17-07:19

    But God is also a God of justice, wrath, and judgment.

    07:20-07:28

    And there are so many goofy and crazy and stupid and ignorant ideas surrounding the wrath and judgment of God.

    07:30-07:41

    Everything from God's just waiting in heaven to slap you down, to God's wrath and judgment doesn't exist at all.

    07:42-07:46

    We're going to take a biblical look at what the Bible says over the next four weeks.

    07:48-07:50

    Alright, history time.

    07:50-07:50

    Nahum.

    07:51-07:55

    You're like, "Wait, I'm still looking for it in the Bible." Alright, we're going to give you a little more time.

    07:56-08:12

    Nahum, if you're taking notes, he was a prophet around 650 BC, and ironically, his name means "comfort." Yeah, well, Nahum is about the city of Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria.

    08:13-08:15

    Like, "Nineveh, Nineveh, Nineveh," that sounds familiar.

    08:15-08:24

    Yeah, Nineveh was the city that God sent Jonah to, and that Peter just gave us a quick refresher on Jonah, right?

    08:24-08:26

    But Nineveh was that city.

    08:28-08:32

    But Jonah went and he preached and that was actually a century before Nahum.

    08:33-08:38

    And remember in Jonah, Nineveh repented, but it was short-lived.

    08:40-08:45

    Okay, so a hundred years later, again, Nahum comes on the scene and Nineveh is back to their old ways.

    08:46-08:53

    And it wasn't just like, okay, Nineveh, you're drinking out of the milk carton and putting it back in the refrigerator.

    08:53-08:56

    It wasn't the nature of their sin.

    08:56-08:59

    They were violently cruel people.

    09:01-09:02

    Violently cruel people.

    09:04-09:12

    So Nahum, the prophet of the southern kingdom of Judah comes on the scene and he says, this is a paraphrase here of what we're going to be looking at the next four weeks.

    09:12-09:15

    Nahum comes on the scene and he's like, "Look God, God has had enough.

    09:17-09:18

    No more.

    09:18-09:29

    God has been patient and God has been merciful and you insist on rejecting him, you insist on cruelly treating his people and he's had enough.

    09:31-09:43

    So yeah, God is showing up again, but no, no, no, not like a hundred years ago when he showed up with Jonah and said, "Repent." No, this time God is showing up to pronounce his holy judgment on your wickedness.

    09:44-09:52

    And as the Assyrian army was descending upon Jerusalem, They had already conquered the ten northern tribes of Israel.

    09:54-09:57

    It was announced that God was going to destroy their capital.

    09:58-09:59

    Nineveh.

    09:59-10:00

    That's what Nahum is about.

    10:01-10:06

    You have to, as much as you can, try to wrap your brains around the impact of this.

    10:06-10:11

    We're kind of removed in time, but Nineveh was at the height of its power at this point.

    10:12-10:12

    Okay?

    10:13-10:16

    And God completely wiped it off of the map.

    10:16-10:20

    It would be like if I stood up today and said, God has had enough of Philadelphia.

    10:21-10:24

    God is going to turn Philadelphia into a parking lot.

    10:24-10:25

    You'd be like, that's crazy.

    10:26-10:27

    It's a huge bustling city.

    10:27-10:29

    That's exactly what was going on here.

    10:29-10:31

    And God's word proved to be true.

    10:32-10:41

    God wiped Nineveh off the map to the extent, you know, they didn't even know where the site was until 1842 when archeologists found evidence.

    10:41-10:44

    Like this is where Nineveh was, finally.

    10:46-10:49

    That shows you the extent of God's work.

    10:51-10:52

    Let's talk about God's judgment.

    10:52-10:54

    You want to get a definition down here.

    10:54-10:57

    We're going to be talking about it for four weeks, so let's make sure we're all on the same page.

    10:57-10:59

    This was the best definition I could come up with.

    11:00-11:07

    God's judgment is God's righteous act of identifying sin and condemning sinners.

    11:09-11:13

    God's righteous act of identifying sin and condemning sinners.

    11:14-11:15

    And biblically there's two kinds.

    11:15-11:18

    There's temporal judgment, first of all, temporal judgment.

    11:20-11:23

    That's on peoples and nations typically.

    11:23-11:26

    We see that in the Old Testament, right?

    11:28-11:40

    That God says, "You're being punished now for your sin." Also on individuals, like David, punished for his sin against Israel.

    11:40-11:41

    There's temporal judgment.

    11:41-11:45

    God says, "I'm going to chastise you here and now for your sin." It's temporal.

    11:46-11:48

    But the Bible also talks about final judgment.

    11:48-11:49

    That's at the end of the age.

    11:49-11:51

    That's in Revelation chapter 20.

    11:52-11:53

    That there is a day.

    11:55-11:57

    That there is a final judgment.

    11:59-12:02

    People have a huge hang-up in talking about God's judgment.

    12:03-12:05

    And you know what the objection is, right?

    12:06-12:06

    You know what the objection is.

    12:09-12:10

    But God is a God of love!

    12:11-12:11

    Right?

    12:12-12:13

    But God is a God of love!

    12:15-12:23

    There's somebody visiting here right now that's like, "I have walked into the wrong church today, because that's not my God! My God is a God of love!

    12:23-12:36

    And I don't know what this guy's talking about, but my God is a God of love." And that is exactly why He is a God of judgment.

    12:38-12:39

    I don't disagree with you at all.

    12:39-12:45

    I absolutely believe that God is a God of love, and that is exactly why He is a God of judgment.

    12:46-12:46

    What?

    12:47-12:47

    What?

    12:47-12:49

    Well, look at verses 1 and 2.

    12:50-12:52

    An oracle concerning Nineveh.

    12:52-12:53

    You're like, "I'm still looking for Nahum.

    12:54-12:54

    It's too late.

    12:54-12:58

    You're just going to have to listen." An oracle concerning Nineveh.

    13:00-13:03

    The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

    13:06-13:11

    The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

    13:13-13:16

    The Lord is avenging and wrathful.

    13:18-13:24

    The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries and keeps wrath for His enemies.

    13:26-13:33

    God's judgment, you see a lot of terms describing it, avenging, wrath, vengeance.

    13:34-13:39

    God's judgment is fueled by the very first thing that Nahum says about God.

    13:39-13:40

    You see it in verse 2?

    13:40-13:41

    The Lord is a - what?

    13:41-13:42

    Say it.

    13:42-13:43

    Jealous.

    13:43-13:46

    The Lord is a jealous God.

    13:47-13:49

    And this is the whole sermon today.

    13:51-13:55

    God's judgment is fueled by His jealousy.

    13:57-14:04

    How fired up is God concerning His jealousy and the judgment that comes from His jealousy?

    14:04-14:07

    Well let's look at a few more verses here.

    14:09-14:18

    Verse 3 says, "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

    14:19-14:24

    His way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.

    14:24-14:27

    He rebukes the sea and makes it dry.

    14:27-14:28

    He dries up all the rivers.

    14:29-14:31

    Bashan and Carmel wither.

    14:31-14:33

    The bloom of Lebanon withers.

    14:33-14:35

    The mountains quake before Him.

    14:36-14:37

    The hills melt.

    14:37-14:39

    The earth heaves before Him.

    14:39-14:45

    The world and all who dwell in it, who can stand before His indignation?

    14:46-14:47

    What's the answer to that?

    14:48-14:48

    Nobody!

    14:50-14:50

    Right?

    14:50-14:52

    Who can endure the heat of His anger?

    14:52-14:53

    What's the answer to that?

    14:54-14:54

    Nobody!

    14:55-15:02

    His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

    15:04-15:08

    Verse 6 talks about his indignation.

    15:10-15:21

    The best way we can translate that word from the Hebrew to the English, the best, I guess, concept we could use for translation is this word means foaming at the mouth.

    15:22-15:23

    That's how that word describes God.

    15:24-15:25

    God's in heaven just like...

    15:27-15:28

    Have you ever been that mad?

    15:29-15:30

    Have you ever been that angry?

    15:30-15:32

    That you're just like...

    15:34-15:35

    frothing at the mouth?

    15:37-15:39

    That's how the prophet describes the Lord.

    15:40-15:47

    He says, "Who can endure the heat of His anger?" The word for anger literally means hot breathing.

    15:48-15:52

    Like fire is coming out of the nostrils of the Lord.

    15:54-15:56

    Can you feel the angry power of the Lord?

    15:56-15:58

    Can you feel that in the text?

    16:00-16:04

    I'd like to remind you that God doesn't get angry the way that I do.

    16:06-16:08

    In my sinfulness, I can fly off the handle.

    16:10-16:12

    Irrationally. God doesn't get angry like that.

    16:13-16:21

    Actually, the Lord waits as long as possible before unleashing His wrath.

    16:21-16:24

    That's something awesome and gracious about our Lord.

    16:24-16:27

    He waits as long as possible.

    16:28-16:46

    That's why Nahum reminds us in verse 3, "The Lord is slow to anger." God's not up in heaven with this hair fused, "That's it! They're done!" Yeah, he's angry, but he's waiting. He's waiting. He's waiting.

    16:48-16:56

    What fuels this judgment? Jealousy. Jealousy.

    16:59-17:03

    God's judgment is fueled by his jealousy. That's the sermon today.

    17:04-17:06

    You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

    17:07-17:20

    Isn't jealousy a bad thing?" Well, when we think of jealousy, we often think of an irrational, emotional response.

    17:21-17:23

    That's what we often think of when we think of jealousy.

    17:23-17:25

    It's an irrational, emotional response.

    17:25-17:39

    Like, it'd be like if, you know, my wife and I were at Target, and she got done checking out in the cashier, a young man, a young good-looking man, says to my wife, "Hey, thank you, have a nice day." They're like, "What do you mean by that, pal?

    17:40-17:49

    "Hey, you better back off, that's my wife." Like, dude, you just, you went from here to here like for zero reason.

    17:49-17:51

    We often think of jealousy like that, right?

    17:52-17:56

    Like we just explode in anger over a non-issue.

    17:56-18:05

    And while that certainly does happen, I don't know, I mean like, that kind of jealousy does happen.

    18:05-18:09

    I don't mean I like pick fights with the guy at Target.

    18:11-18:15

    But that's not what the Bible means when the Bible says that God is jealous.

    18:17-18:25

    Or a lot of times we use the word jealous when we really mean envy or covet, which is wanting something that someone else has.

    18:26-18:29

    You know, whether it's their car, their house, their wife, their dog, whatever.

    18:30-18:36

    that's wanting something that belongs to someone else, that's coveting or being envious of someone.

    18:36-18:42

    And jealousy is often a synonym for that concept.

    18:42-18:53

    But, biblical righteous jealousy, there's a righteous jealousy, and that's what we're talking about here.

    18:53-18:58

    Biblical righteous jealousy is tied into rights to ownership.

    19:00-19:01

    True jealousy.

    19:02-19:03

    Hear this, church.

    19:04-19:10

    It's tied into right to ownership, and true jealousy is appropriate.

    19:12-19:14

    I'll give you a couple of scriptures to consider.

    19:14-19:15

    First of all, Exodus 20.

    19:18-19:22

    It says, this is the first commandment, actually, that the Lord gave.

    19:22-19:28

    He says, "You shall have no other gods before me." This isn't an irrational statement.

    19:28-19:30

    God knows that there is no other God.

    19:31-19:38

    And God knows in our sinful tendency, we tend to make things that aren't God into gods that can't help us, can't provide for us, can't save us.

    19:39-19:48

    So God says, "Listen, you shall have no other gods before me." And later on in Exodus 34, we get into a little more commentary about God's heart in the matter.

    19:49-20:00

    He says, "For you shall worship no other God for the Lord," look at this, "whose name is Jealous." I am so jealous for you, you can call me jealous.

    20:01-20:02

    My very name is jealous.

    20:02-20:05

    It says the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God.

    20:07-20:14

    Deuteronomy 4.24 says, "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." We could go on and on and on.

    20:17-20:18

    Church, don't miss this.

    20:20-20:25

    Because somebody's gonna walk out of here like, "Yeah, I really didn't get what this jealousy, "or this judgment thing was about.

    20:25-20:26

    "Why is God so fired up?

    20:27-20:27

    God's got so angry.

    20:28-20:34

    Listen, listen, God is righteously jealous because he passionately loves.

    20:36-20:40

    That's why his judgment is fueled by his jealousy.

    20:40-20:54

    Don't think of judgment and love being two completely opposite concepts that have no merit being in the same conversation when we're talking about the Lord, because they are directly tied together.

    20:54-20:59

    And the thing that ties love and judgment together is this concept of jealousy.

    20:59-21:00

    Don't miss it.

    21:01-21:05

    God is righteously jealous because He passionately loves.

    21:06-21:16

    Because the truth is, jealousy really only ever belongs to those who love.

    21:19-21:25

    Jealousy, true jealousy, righteous jealousy, biblical, godly jealousy only belongs to those who love.

    21:26-21:36

    Meaning this, if I'm out somewhere and I see a man flirting with another man's wife, "Oh, that's wrong.

    21:38-21:42

    That doesn't really affect me." Like, "Yeah, you probably shouldn't be doing that.

    21:42-21:51

    And I'm not like going to carry that around with me the rest of the day." I'm like, "No, that guy shouldn't be doing that." Nothing moves me there.

    21:53-21:54

    Doesn't mean anything to me.

    21:54-22:02

    But, if I see a man flirting with my wife, that starts a fire in my gut.

    22:03-22:03

    Why?

    22:05-22:06

    Because I love and care about her.

    22:08-22:09

    She is mine.

    22:10-22:11

    And I am hers.

    22:11-22:17

    And we made a covenant to that statement before the Lord.

    22:20-22:23

    So do you see how jealousy only belongs to those who love?

    22:25-22:28

    Let's pretend for a second that I don't care.

    22:28-22:29

    Let's pretend for a second that I don't care.

    22:30-22:36

    I see a guy flirting with my wife, obviously flirting, asking her out.

    22:38-22:40

    Let's just pretend for a second that I don't care.

    22:40-22:50

    "Eh, it's not really my business. Hey, you know what, live and let live." Just think of that scenario getting out of hand.

    22:52-22:55

    That scenario getting as bad as it could get.

    22:57-22:59

    I want you to think of all the harm that can come from that.

    23:01-23:04

    Another man coming in between our marriage covenant.

    23:05-23:08

    Think of the harm that could come from that.

    23:08-23:09

    What would that do to our children?

    23:11-23:13

    What would that do to our extended family?

    23:15-23:16

    What would that do to the church?

    23:17-23:18

    I wouldn't be here.

    23:20-23:21

    I couldn't be here.

    23:23-23:24

    What would that do to our testimony?

    23:25-23:32

    You know, we've written books about marriage, and we've traveled and spoken at conferences about marriage, and now all of a sudden our marriage doesn't exist anymore.

    23:34-23:55

    So do you understand church, objectively, in that scenario when somebody else is trying to come between a marriage covenant, objectively, just purely objectively, I can step back from that and I can say, "Nothing good can possibly come from this." But subjectively, it's jealousy.

    23:56-24:05

    It's, "No, this is wrong! She belongs to me! I love her!" And that's true jealousy. Jealousy protects.

    24:07-24:10

    It protects her. It protects the marriage covenant.

    24:12-24:16

    We made this covenant before God, and anything threatening that is wrong and harmful.

    24:17-24:21

    Jealousy is protecting what we have and what we love. That's jealousy.

    24:23-24:25

    Protecting what we have and what we love.

    24:25-24:36

    And God, more than anyone, has the right to protect what is His.

    24:38-24:41

    That was a great spot for an "Amen." I'm going to give you another run at that.

    24:43-24:46

    God, more than anyone, has the right to protect what is His.

    24:48-24:50

    God's jealousy is altogether righteous.

    24:52-24:58

    I know we say all the time, you know, "Just always remember, Church, He is God and I am not." Okay, yeah, we get that.

    24:59-25:02

    But I want you to pretend that you're God for a second.

    25:03-25:07

    I want you to look at the story from God's perspective.

    25:09-25:11

    Look at the story from God's perspective.

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    God created man to have a loving relationship with Him.

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    God says, "I'm gonna create this world, "Specifically, I'm gonna create man in my image "so that we can have a loving relationship "that I can show love and provision, "and we're gonna have this awesome thing together." God says, "I'm gonna create man for that purpose." And what does man do?

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    Violates the only law that God gave.

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    Rebels.

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    And God says, "You know what?

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    "Despite his flagrant rebellion, and despite my creation spitting in my face, I'm going to make a way that he can be forgiven.

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    And despite that, most of mankind still has rejected their creator, rejected their savior, and even violently and cruelly and spitefully mistreats those who are in a love relationship with God.

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    So let me ask you, church, Can you get a glimpse of God's jealousy?

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    Just a glimpse.

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    God's jealous for three things that belong to Him.

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    Three things that belong to God that He is jealous for.

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    The first one is His glory.

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    His glory.

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    God is jealous for His own glory.

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    And some would say, well, that makes God an egomaniac.

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    Absolutely not.

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    Because God is the only one in this universe that deserves any glory.

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    Truth be, He is the only one in the universe that deserves all glory.

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    So glory given to worthless competition is the ultimate evil.

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    That's the ultimate evil.

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    God's throne will not be shared with anyone else.

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    God will never say, "I'm going to scooch over so you have some room to reign with me." That is never going to happen.

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    God's crown will not be placed on another head.

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    God will not tolerate competition because to Him and to Him alone goes all glory and honor and praise.

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    He is jealous of His own glory.

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    Secondly, He's jealous for His work.

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    He's jealous for His work.

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    God is working to save us and anything that gets in the way of His gracious and loving work incites His jealous anger.

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    Thirdly, what we're talking about today specifically, God is jealous for his people.

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    God is jealous for his people.

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    You know, we sing that song sometimes, that David Crowder song, right?

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    You know, how he loves, you know the first line of that song?

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    He is jealous for me, you know?

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    He is, he is jealous.

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    You're like, oh, Pastor Jeff, that is so Old Testament.

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    Is it?

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    2 Thessalonians 1.6 says, "God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you." Oh no, this carries over to the New Testament.

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    God is jealous for His people because He loves you.

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    And enemies of God's people are God's enemies.

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    That's what Nineveh was about to find out.

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    God has a holy concern for what He loves.

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    God is jealous for you.

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    That's why idolatry is such an affront to God.

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    Old Testament, New Testament, we see so much teaching against idolatry.

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    Idolatry, robbing God of His glory, harmful to His people.

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    What is idolatry?

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    Idolatry is anything, anything that has preeminence in your life that is not God.

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    I ask you, where do your affections and thoughts naturally go?

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    What is your priority in life?

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    What does your time and money and effort and energy go towards?

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    And if there's anything in your life that has a place of preeminence over your personal walk with Jesus Christ, that thing is an idol.

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    And I'm here to tell you this morning, God hates it.

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    He hates it.

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    All this talk about hot breathing and foaming at the mouth, that's how God feels about your idol because he doesn't tolerate competition.

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    Do you have an idol in your life?

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    It's time to tear it down.

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    It's time to allow God his rightful place in the throne of your life.

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    It's time to stop allowing lesser things to hold your affections.

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    It's time for any of these idols to be taken off of the throne of your heart and allow Jesus Christ with His grace and His love to have His rightful place.

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    Is there someone else in this world that's more important to you than God?

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    Some relationship?

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    Your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your bae?

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    Husband, wife, kids?

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    Is there someone else in this world that's more important to you than God?

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    This relationship means more to me than this relationship.

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    I gotta tell you, that relationship has become an idol.

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    And God will not tolerate it.

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    Do you have an addiction that consumes your heart and your mind?

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    Then that addiction is an idol and God will not tolerate it.

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    Are you driven by lust?

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    Does pornography have a stronghold in your life?

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    Then that is an idol and God will not tolerate it.

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    God would actually be unloving if he tolerated idols in your life.

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    God would be unloving if he had no concern about you having an idol in your life.

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    Could you imagine?

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    Could you imagine God in heaven looking at us, nurturing our idols, and God says, "You know what?

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    Those things aren't going to bless them.

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    Those things aren't going to help them be the person that I called them to be.

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    Those things certainly aren't going to save them, but I really don't care." Oh, he cares.

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    And these things are an assault on you.

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    These idols are an assault on your soul as much as Nineveh was on Israel.

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    And Nahum shows us exactly how God's jealousy for His people fires His anger on whatever is harmful to His people.

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    God's like, "Hurt my people?

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    You're going to hurt my people?

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    I don't think so." Because He is jealous for us.

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    God's judgment is fueled by His jealousy.

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    And as our world increasingly sees God's people being attacked and oppressed by enemies of God, Nahum's message still rings true.

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    God's jealousy will fuel His wrath that will soon be poured out on everyone who hates God and everyone who hates God's people.

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    God's jealousy is an absolute terror, should be an absolute terror, will be an absolute to those who worship anything or anyone else.

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    But the same jealousy, the same jealousy that leads to hot breathing and foaming at the mouth of God's enemies, the same jealousy is a comfort to God's people.

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    The same jealousy is a comfort to God's people.

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    Look at verse 7.

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    Love this.

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    He says, "The Lord is good." Do you know why Nahum says that?

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    Because he's not on the business end of receiving this wrath.

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    Because he knows he's one of the people that God is jealous for.

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    And he can say, "God's jealous for me. The Lord is good." And if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today, you can say that.

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    I know the Lord is good.

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    He goes on, "A stronghold in the day of trouble." Finally for today it says, "He knows." He knows those who take refuge in Him.

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    The same jealousy that fuels God's anger is jealousy that is a comfort to God's people, because God knows who is His.

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    Church, I'm speaking to those of you sitting here today who love God.

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    Do you love God?

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    Have you been born again through the blood of Jesus Christ?

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    And I want you to be comforted today, knowing that God's jealousy is a protection for you.

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    And there is no greater stronghold in the day of trouble than the refuge of being in the hands of God, who is jealous for you.

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    Let's pray.

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    Father in heaven, we thank You.

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    We just thank You as Your people.

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    We thank You for Your jealousy for us.

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    That God, You care.

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    We are nothing.

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    We are nothing.

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    But You love us.

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    You love us with a passion that burns Your anger on the things that assault us.

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    You are jealous God and as your people today we thank you for that.

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    We thank you God that you don't tolerate enemies of your people.

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    We thank you God that you don't tolerate idols in our lives.

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    I pray God if there's someone here today who hasn't received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, I pray today is the day that you shake them to their core.

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    Father, if there's somebody here that has an idol, I'm sure there is.

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    I'm positive there is in a room like this, there's people that right now know they've elevated something in their life to a place that only you deserve.

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    I pray Father that you and your sovereignty, by the power of your Holy Spirit, would grant them repentance.

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    That they would turn from that.

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    And while Jesus Christ, His rightful place, says, "Lord, thank you God that you are jealous.

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    You care to protect.

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    You care to make all things right.

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    As your people, we rest in the comfort of your jealousy today.

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    We pray in Jesus' name.

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    Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Nahum 1:1-7

  1. Explain why God is jealous (Nahum 1:2). Why does that fuel His judgment? How is jealousy and judgment tied into God's love?

  2. How should a Christian respond to the Bible’s teaching on God’s judgment?

  3. Respond to this statement: "Isn’t it arrogant for God to demand to receive glory for Himself?”.

  4. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / sermon?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another!